Musings on horticultural therapy and the soothing effects of plants and nature
When it is February in Connecticut, there are few gardening tasks at hand as the soil is cold and the only thing that warms the soul is the prospect of new growth pushing through the ground in the next month or so. In the next week I will be starting flats of early greens and […]
This has been a cruel winter in Connecticut not in that the weather has been so severe but rather it has been a tease. The 18 inches of white stuff I saw in October represents over 75 percent of all the snow we have had this season. The plants know not what to do as […]
In this unusual winter, things are a little different in the garden. I can still harvest some winter greens as they have stubbornly held on to life and moisture. The ground is often not like a brick but rather can be easily dug and worked. And the typical cover of snow is nowhere to be […]
As I have mentioned in a prior post, one of the large challenges my vegetable garden faces is its exposure or its lack of one. Though its raised beds are situated on a greenhouse foundation, the combination of northern exposure and tree cover, which wasn’t there when the greenhouse was built, makes for light light […]
Yesterday I was outside clearing some brush when I quickly noticed that my trusty Carthartt jacket was way too warm as was my scarf and cap. By 10 am I was stripped down to my turtleneck working up a good sweat as I piled up brush to be later chipped; by noon I was a […]
Going out for the newspaper a few mornings ago, I was greeted by a warm 50 degree breeze and sunny skies. Normally, such weather is more appropriate for the Spring Equinox than the Winter Solstice. But this has been a year of unusual weather so I shrugged off the morning breeze as yet another aberration […]
It’s been too long since I have last posted, which has been due to a combination of events out of my control. The first, and perhaps most relevant, is that I am between horticultural therapy programs. I am no longer working at Green Chimneys as a volunteer, as my mentor has moved on to other […]
Writing by candlelight and fire evokes images of Abe Lincoln or Ben Franklin recording their thoughts at the end of a long day. But there is little else I was able to do after days without power finding myself alone tending a fire to keep the house warm and the pets fed. This trip back […]
Putting up a deer fence was both an end and starting point. It was the end of the carnage by the deer. If the snow didn’t save them from deer last winter, any remaining plants got chewed up in the spring or died during the rainless July this summer. But now we can start anew. […]
Over the past 4 months or so I have been spending a lot of time at Ann’s Place working to build a series of therapeutic gardens. The first phase of this project is almost done after a series of delays that have been caused by the crummy weather we have had this past summer. In […]